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Is The Vita Slipping Away From Us?

For the record, I really like the PlayStation Vita. I think a lot of people do.

But there appears to be evidence all around us that Sony's new portable is slipping away at an alarming speed. At this point, I'm wondering if it'll even make it through 2014.

If you step back and look at it from a consumer's or marketing standpoint, there's just nothing there. Few can name any potential AAA titles on the horizon, although there are some solid games scheduled for the rest of 2013. Next year, however, looks completely barren and even more telling is the fact that Sony never wants to divulge any Vita-related stats. They haven't really done it all year. Granted, they've spent their time with the PS4 but I think we all know why they're avoiding the Vita issue: Things aren't going very well, and everyone knows it.

Little to no software, very little in the way of promotion and advertisement (at least as far as I can see), and few, if any, notable developers cranking on Vita-specific titles. Sure, the handheld can play all sorts of multiplatform games, and that Cross Buy incentive is wicked cool, but it simply isn't enough. There needs to be more visibility, more attention, more excitement; we're getting nothing but silence from the Vita realm, and that is not a good sign. Nobody - and I mean nobody; developers, publishers, Sony, gamers, etc. - is talking about it, and I don't think they plan to any time soon. Sadly, most mainstream consumers have no idea that Sony released a new portable device.

It's vastly superior to any smartphone and I think competes favorably with tablet gaming as well, but all of that is irrelevant if nobody cares. And right now, it's hard to find anyone who really seems to care.

Comments (43 posts)

I hope it doesn't die completely. I just bought the WD bundle back in August and the thing really is an excellent piece of hardware. The screen is gorgeous, the controls are right and the games are fun Really looking forward to the connectivity it will share with PS4 as well.

It releases a new device with no marketing, no ads, etc. While PS3, who has 80 million sold and still selling well, gets marketing, ads, etc.

PS3 has 80 million sold, still selling very well. PSVita is the complete opposite but Sony still releases virtually all their games for PS3 and not for PSVita.

PS3 has 80 million sold, etc. and virtually all the newly announced games are for PS3 or PS4, not PSVita.

Sony releases dumb proprietary memory cards for it and put super expensive price tags on them. It's one of the it's biggest cons, and two years later, barely drop the prices.

PSVita requires an expensive memory card to use it.

PSVita is stuck to only one PSN ID and memory card. WTF? What kind of restrictive, anti consumer, anti control and freedom crap is that? Apple/Google/MS, is that you?

Sony still doesn't drop the prices of their products and games enough that consumers want to buy it.

PSVita can be such an amazing machine but Sony chose and chooses to cripple it.

How hard is it to take a loss and sell it for as low as possible? A price that matches or beats 3DS?

To include a memory card with every PSVita? even a 1GB or 526MB? Whatever, as long as it's enough to store game saves and maybe updates.

To bundle a game or two with every PSVita?

Lower the prices of your games? $40 is already overpriced for portable games.

Market the thing?!?!?!

Release great games for it?

How about this? Get a PSVita and get a portable PS3 in the palm of your hand. Play a PS3 quality first person shooter anywhere you go. *S And show amazing clip of Killzone* And PS3 quality fun for the whole family *Show LittleBigPlanet. Enjoy your favorite apps *Show Facebook, Twitter and Youtube* All for $170, the same price as 3DS ;)

Yeah I'm pretty well past wanting one. All I can think of is they always planned for it to be a hitter in conjunction with PS4 and wanted time for the price and tech costs to come down. Perhaps they thought more 3rd party devs would be on board and really without them the lineup stinks.

yah, pretty sure they expected better support. At some point shortly after it's launch they made mention of having problems rallying publisher support and they didn't expect that. I suppose that's what happens when the landscape moves beneath you and there's not much that can be done about it.

Vita doesn't seem to create much attention. But I don't think the Vita will go away entirely anytime soon, sorta like the PSP or something. I doubt we'll see any exclusives outside of Sony for the machine. That seems dang sure. I look forward to eventually playing KZ, FFX HD Collection, Injustice, and hopefully an eventual Tekken game and DOA5U+Then someday when I get a PS4 I'll be able to enjoy playing many games on my Vita via remote play. It's a neat gadget game machine. It doesn't draw in the excitement of other platforms but I think it'll be with us for many more years.

EDIT: ANd does anyone else have problems with the system locking up in the PS Store or having a spastic web browser that throws errors all the time? I do and it sucks.Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/9/2013 10:49:09 PM

I hope it doesn't flop like the pspgo did. To bad right now it's not getting enough support as it should. To me it's a waste unless if I'm on vacation a lot, portable gaming doesn't grab me as it use to.Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 10/9/2013 11:38:48 PM

On another side note: This is where the indie devs would shine, to get the Vita more love, needs some different styles of games, you got the big hitters already on the consoles, some more variety.Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 10/10/2013 2:58:24 PM

I have to agree. I bought one, but why would I want the Vita to play ps4 games at a lower res and graphical value? I understand some of the perks like say you go cook for your lady and your waiting for the meat to fry up or something and so you play your ps4 game on your vita... But there are countless other things to do while doing things...at home. The Vita needs its own identity, not being the ps4s shadow, lesser shadow. I really don't like the way Sony is handling the Vita. It just needs to be what the psp was, cool unique little games you don't find on the console.

Sony's pretty good at keeping stuff on life support until it either succeeds or just gets horribly trampled. I don't think the vita will be disappearing too soon. Hopefully it'll stick around enough to get more support.

It's sad really. It's an amazing device, but if Sony isn't willing to give their full support, why would third party peeps jump in there and try to do it.

The last few months it seems that sony has given up on vita. Plus additions for vita have been few and far between and when they added them, they stopped updating ps1 support and left half of their ps1 list off of the vita.

It's just disappointing, hopefully they can turn it around and hopefully the promise of all ps4 games being remote playable on vita isn't just another carrot on a stick.

I am really surprised that Sony didn't do more promotion of the Vita in relation to the PS4, tie them closer together and make it "a cool PS4 accessory".I really expected that, this was an opportunity to "reboot" that device - probably the last opportunity to do so.

But it seems Sony agree with what most of us have seen a long time already: The Vita is dead and it's no reason to burn a lot more resources on that project.And personally I fully agree with that decision. I'd do the same. But I do not expect it to be pulled off the market already during 2014. It'll probably sit there in their catalogue for a little longer.Last edited by Beamboom on 10/10/2013 1:40:06 AM

The vita should come in to its own when the ps4 is out, but far too many are making up news about it dying or failing. There's only two handhelds out on the market that are current handheld gen, and there is no way that the vita is secondary to the 3ds, i don't follow the 3ds but i refuse to belive that it had a better line up or a better possible future than the vita.... Do you think a Nintendo oriented gaming site is saying the 3ds is dying? No..

The problem is not the Vita but the market for dedicated handheld gaming machines.As long as 3DS is closing in on 40 mill sold units there's no reason for Nintendo sites to say it's dead yet. But it's not unlikely that the 3DS will enter history as the last successful handheld gaming machine.

Sony shot themselves in the foot with the high price of the vita ( I found it ok for what you were getting, both others certainly didn't ), and the very high price of the memory cards. Of course, it didn't help that there just isn't any must own games for it either.

I think it's too late for the Vita to make a comeback, they'd have to push out half a dozen very good games really quick, combined with a price drop to get back into the game at this point. Shame, it's such a nice handheld.

I'm waiting for Vita TV as a handheld console, it doesn't interest me. I already had a PSP and I'm content with that. There are a few games I would like to play, but the Vita TV will offer PS1, PSP & Vita games on the big screen. I'm not really into portable gaming, I never play the games out the house anyway, so I would benefit from Vita TV immensely, just waiting for it to arrive...

Final Fantasy Type-0 would have convinced me to get a Vita, but S-E have ruined that prospect with Agtio on the iOS.

you're dam right ben there is no excitement or advertisement or push for the vita to succeed we have not word on any big games for 2014 from anyone and it the 1st party department it seems like there might be something coming but we don't know what or when and thats the thing in 2014 we don't know if anything is coming or when its coming and yes we got stuff or 2013 but yea 2014 nothing there's nothing(meaning games) i can think that wud interest casuals.i mean i've run outta ideas of wat to expect next year. i mean the end of the year there has been and will be games that i want to play on vita but nothing next year.

Sony came out swinging with it, but it just sort of fell apart. Sure, there are some good games coming but I think that, unless something turns around in a big way quickly, the Vita will just drop out of sight and out of mind and Sony's portable division will be no more. And to be honest... I won't miss it all that much. The PSP had quite a few great games, a couple of Vita games have piqued my interest but that's it.

Love my Vita. Have put 40 hours into Killzone and now just got Dragons Crown (just released in Australia) and it is fantastic.

I know people moan about the lack of games but its got: Uncharted, Assassins Creed, Killzone, Soul Sacrifice, Persona 4 Golden, Gravity Rush, Lumines, Tennis, FIFA, Need for Speed, Dead or Alive, The Walking Dead and Golf.

Got all the bases covered. And its going to have PS4 integration. How can all that be a failure?

and the vita is exactly why im so worried about the ps4.the vita is doing so poorly because it feels like a outdated device.did you know the latest ipad has a higher power output than the vita?thats just sad!im worried the ps4 is going to suffer the same fate, especially now with valve starting to talk about the steambox and its really high specs.$ony and M$ are REALLY going to have them a tough fight on their hands!

$ony does no marketing for it too thats certainly not helping.it was funny when i was lining up for the ps4 que on saturday one of $onys PR guys saw my friend playing escape plan on his vita and you should of seen the look on his face its like he saw a ghost!wow, someone actually bought that thing!?

There isn't much better than playing "quite possible the greatest game ever made" FFVII... while on the can. The vita makes it possible for me to play games while basting a deuce. It might just be the American dream. If Sony could get this out on an add it might kick start what we all really want.

Lets not forget that the PS4 should have some better compatibility options for the Vita. Not to mention Boarderlands 2 and HD FFX

Its the damn memory cards that keep me from downloading their games. Let us use microsd cards. If Sony is worried about read speed , they can sell their branded vita microsd on the side. Give us an option. They are being too greedy on this one.

It is seriously one of the best pieces of gaming hardware I've ever held. It breaks my heart the thing is just not going to do what we hoped it would.

Sony is attempting to re-position Vita as an indie/smaller scale boutique gaming machine. I'm sure plenty of those games will be good but man, having just played the Vita Killzone, it's just a shame to think of the machine that could have been.

I for one am VERY happy that the Vita will serve as a remote play option for PS4, though I'm sure most gamers aren't interested in a $200 second screen option.

I can honestly say I have so many unfinished games for my Vita I could be set for 2 yrs. I NEED the 16G. card to fit more games on. I purchased my AC bundle last yr. for 178.00 US, price was not an issue. I have 2 PSP's,2 DSI XL's, 2 3DSXL's , a PS3 and 2 Xbox 360's. I have an 8yr old and Im pretty sure he wants his own VITA. I get tired of handing over mine. My 3 yr old plays treasure park, frobisher says and welcome park. This little machine gets a lot of use. Every time I pick it up the battery is dead. Functional utility = 100%.Were not talking about when the wife and two kids are owning all the TV's in the house and I flip to earbuds and NETFLIX with a FANTASTIC display(when Im too tired or gamed out.) I started incorporating quality JRPGS into my mix, talk about cranking hours. I bit the Killzone bug and I thought I would never buy a shooter for the VITA, that's what the big boys are for.It's FANTASTIC and potential hours to grind for those trophies. I wont buy a PS4 most likely for a Yr. or two. Cross play is not a key selling point for me. If they quit making games for the VITA it might be.In the scope of things there are way too many decent games out there to have time to play them all. If you only own or support one platform you are key holed.

The VITA sits perfectly fine with me, with or without the ps4. I have backlog on the PS3,backlog on flipping just about everything I own. Triple back log if you count 1 or 2 additional play throughs on the highest difficulty settings. At this point if I were to buy a PS4 or XBOX1 it would be just to own it, I don't need it. Just play.

They need to make memory cards very cheap and release a few big games like GTA and CoD, the system is awesome it just has very few games and even fewer good apps... PSP success came from its games, PS1 compatibility and honestly the homebrew scene helped make the PSP what it was too, so maybe they need to allow people to make apps for it and have an apple like store to download them, that would help the device catch on. It's the best handheld ever made, it just needs to be utilized for what it is.

Really too early to call this - if Vita TV did well in the West, then it could lead to a new influx of games for the system. Similarly, the PS4 could have an impact on the Vita as well. It may well fade out to just be a niche system with not support outside of Indie titles (which still do well on it), but if it does, then it'll be right sad. It's honestly the only handheld system that's ever been able to compete with my console/PC time when I'm at home, and it wipes the floor with tablet/smartphone gaming (not to mention has a far better library of 'gamer' games).

It releases a new device with no marketing, no ads, etc. While PS3, who has 80 million sold and still selling well, gets marketing, ads, etc.

PS3 has 80 million sold, still selling very well. PSVita is the complete opposite but Sony still releases virtually all their games for PS3 and not for PSVita.

PS3 has 80 million sold, etc. and virtually all the newly announced games are for PS3 or PS4, not PSVita.

Sony releases dumb proprietary memory cards for it and put super expensive price tags on them. It's one of the it's biggest cons, and two years later, barely drop the prices.

PSVita requires an expensive memory card to use it.

PSVita is stuck to only one PSN ID and memory card. WTF? What kind of restrictive, anti consumer, anti control and freedom crap is that? Apple/Google/MS, is that you?

Sony still doesn't drop the prices of their products and games enough that consumers want to buy it.

PSVita can be such an amazing machine but Sony chose and chooses to cripple it.

How hard is it to take a loss and sell it for as low as possible? A price that matches or beats 3DS?

To include a memory card with every PSVita? even a 1GB or 526MB? Whatever, as long as it's enough to store game saves and maybe updates.

To bundle a game or two with every PSVita?

Lower the prices of your games? $40 is already overpriced for portable games.

Market the thing?!?!?!

Release great games for it?

How about this? Get a PSVita and get a portable PS3 in the palm of your hand. Play a PS3 quality first person shooter anywhere you go. *S And show amazing clip of Killzone* And PS3 quality fun for the whole family *Show LittleBigPlanet. Enjoy your favorite apps *Show Facebook, Twitter and Youtube* All for $170, the same price as 3DS ;)